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Twinsters (2015)

In 2010s Catfish, two filmmakers charted the supposed ‘accidental’ filming of a remarkable story – a budding online friendship that turned out to be a complete construct. It was a feeling that permeated the entire film and somewhat limited the extent that one could be immersed in the story. What was happening felt a little too perfect, and it was a little too coincidental that the filmmakers had happened to be filming from the first moment. There is nothing constructed, however, about Twinsters, an unabashedly delightful documentary of coincidence and connection in the age of social media. Samantha Futerman, an actress and YouTuber, adopted from South Korea and raised in the United States, started charting the discovery on her YouTube channel days after Anais Bordier, a French fashion student who was also adopted from South Korea, messaged her on Facebook and commented on their physical similarities. The two women started talking, and were soon convinced that they are twin sisters, going on an exhilarating journey together to discover the truth about their origins. The documentary never feels anything less than completely natural as it moves across the globe with Samantha from those first Skype conversations to a first in-person meeting in London. While the story of the pure chance of them finding each other (one person comments on the fact that if it weren’t for the internet, Samantha and Anais likely would have never found each other) is one with a happy ending, there is nonetheless moments that are less than idealised, including their frank descriptions of their experiences of adoption – Samantha grew up in an environment where she felt accepted, while Anais frequently felt alienation as a child. But Twinsters’s embrace is one of unabashed warmth, natural, unguarded and purely delightful.